Fred Perry, father of British tennis, dies | The Independent Sport Fred Perry, father of British tennis, dies `He was a superlative ambassador for sport throughout the world. He was a great character, big-hearted, and a true champion' Friday 3 February 1995 00:02 BST Click to follow The Independent Online The great Fred Perry has died, aged 85. Britain's last link with the Wimbledon men's singles title passed away last evening at a hospital in Melbourne, where he had been cared for since falling in a hotel bath and breaking four ribs. Perry, who always kept in close touch with the sport, had gone to Australia to watch the tennis championships, which ended last Sunday. His fourth wife, Barbara, known to all as "Bobby", was with him, and his daughter, Penny, was on her way to Melbourne when he died. In the 1930s, Perry became the first player in history to have his name inscribed on the world's four major singles trophies, those of Wimbledon, France, the United States and Australia, though he did not accomplish this in the same calendar year, a featwhich came to be known as the Grand Slam.

It was at Wimbledon that Perry achieved his greatest glory. In 1936 he won a third consecutive singles title, the first Briton to win three in a row since Laurie Doherty in 1903. Afterwards, Perry went to America and turned professional, leaving British tennis with a void it has been unable to fill. He became a United States citizen in 1939. Millions in Wimbledon profits have been spent by the Lawn Tennis Association in an attempt to create a system to produce players capable at least of making a challenge on the professional circuits, let alone of emulating Perry and Virginia Wade, the lastBriton to win the women's singles title at the All England Club, in 1977. In 1984, the 50th anniverary of Perry's first Wimbledon triumph, a statue was erected in the Wimbledon grounds, and the gates at the Somerset Road entrance were dedicated in his honour. The belated tributes were in stark contrast to the manner in which he was treated by the tennis establishment during his amateur career. This was encapsulated after his initial Wimbledon victory against "Gentleman" Jack Crawford in 1934.

Perry, soaking in the bath, overheard a member of the All England Club's committee tell his Australian opponent, "This was one day when the best man did not win." Crawford was presented with a bottle of champagne and Perry's honorary member's tie was left draped over the back of his chair. Born in Stockport, Cheshire, the son of a cotton spinner who became a Labour MP, the forthright Perry was a fiercely determined competitor who could not abide snobbishness. The qualities that made him a magnificent champion, both as an individual and also as a member of victorious Davis Cup teams, were not always appreciated by the LTA. He was regarded as a rebel, and worse after he turned professional. Perry and his fellow pros were virtual outlaws, discouraged from playing on any tennis court at any tennis club attached to any tennis federation. They had make do with improvised arenas, once playing at the Kop end of the Liverpool football ground at Anfield. Versatile as a sportsman - he won the world table tennis title before turning to tennis - Perry was popular with the Hollywood set after turning professional and later the flanelled hero made a name in the sportswear industry.

John Curry, the All England Club's chairman, summarised the man well in paying tribute last night. "Fred Perry was a superlative ambassador for our sport throughout the world," Curry said. "He was a great character, big-hearted, and a true champion in every sense. He won the affection and admiration of all those involved in tennis: the players, the fans, the media, and officials. Fred was one of those rare individuals. He was at ease with all, from the youngest fans to royalty." Christine Janes, a former Wimbledon singles finalist and co-commentator with Perry on BBC Radio, said on Five Live: "Fred was one of those indestructible people who one hoped would go on forever. He was unique. He was always optimistic and, although he was much older than many of those people he was mixing with, always seemed to stay very young at heart and be involved with people of all ages. You can't really replace him." Also speaking on Radio Five Live was "Bunny" Austin, a Davis Cup team-mate of Perry's in the 1930s. He said: "I have the recollection of a magnificent athlete who was a sort of genius.

"He was the table tennis champion of London, Middlesex and the world. He went to a park one day and saw a game which he found out was called lawn tennis. He said `I like that game', got himself a racket and went on to play tennis exactly the same way he'd played table tennis. "I think that if he had been trained they probably would have ruined him. He was a kind of genius. He did everything wrong, but he won. I think he was a first-class sportsman." Chris Bailey, the recently retired British player remembered for a stirring performance against Goran Ivanisevic on the Centre Court, said: "It's a shame no one has been able to emulate what he achieved. He was a great man and a great character. He came to a few Davis Cup matches and used to support the British players - however badly we played." David Lloyd, Britain's Davis Cup captain elect, said Perry "had an aura, something special that all great people have, and you couldn't but respect him." Your correspondent's last conversation with our Fred was by telephone last Monday, inquiring about his health at the Epworth hospital before leaving Melbourne.

We discussed the previous day's Australian Open men's singles final, in which Andre Agassi haddefeated his American compatriot, Pete Sampras. Perry, who had watched the match on television, expressed concerned about Sampras's feet, which had blistered during the tournament. "In my day," he said, "we used to put moleskin on the soles of our feet to protect them from blisters. You could bathe and shower with it on, and when the tournament was finished, the moleskin would peel away without any trouble." Was it still available? "Yes," he said, "I've got some with me." Obituary, page 16 THE PERRY CREDO `Play the game on and off the court learn to accept defeat gracefully and be ever ready to appreciate your conqueror's success. Never sacrifice your strokes for the sake of winning a match. Take the long view. Let the young player adopt athree year plan of development. Practise taking the ball early. Speed is essential in modern tennis. Remember that attack is the best form of defence. Never play for safety! The courageous policy will pay in the long run. Play to the umpire.

Do not insult him by throwing away points after a doubtful decision in your favour.' l From Fred Perry's 1934 autobiography: `My Story'. FRED PERRY 1909 Born Stockport, 18 May. 1929 Won world table-tennis championship. 1931 Reached Wimbledon semi-final, losing to the eventual champion, Sidney Woods. First played for Britain in Davis Cup, and reached challenge round, in which they lost 3-2 to France. 1932 Won mixed doubles at French Championships with Betty Nuthall. Runners-up in men's doubles at Wimbledon with Pat Hughes. Won mixed doubles at US Championships with Sarah Palfrey. 1933 Won men's doubles at French Championships with Hughes and runner-up in mixed doubles with Nuthall. Won US Championship, his first major singles title. Helped Britain win Davis Cup for first time since 1912. 1934 Won singles and doubles, with Hughes, in Australian Championships. Won Wimbledon singles for first time. Won US Championship for second time. Helped Britain win Davis Cup for second successive year. 1935 Runner-up in singles and doubles, with Hughes, at Australian Championships.

Won French Championship singles, and became first player in game's history to win all four major titles. Won Wimbledon singles for second time, and mixed doubles with Dorothy Round. Helped Britain win Davis Cup for third time running. 1936 Runner-up in French Championship singles. Won Wimbledon singles for third year running, and mixed doubles for second time with Round. Won US Championship singles for third time. Helped Britain win Davis Cup for fourth successive year, having won in career 34 of 38 Cup singles and 11 of 14 doubles. Turned professional. 1939 Became US citizen. 1948 Won Slazenger Professional tournament at Eastbourne. 1950 Won Slazenger Tournament for second time. 1951 Won Slazenger Tournament for third time. 1984 Had Wimbledon statue erected in All England Club grounds, and had Somerset Road gates named after him. 1995 Died 2 February, Melbourne. More about: Fred Perry Biography -Biography Online About Fred Perry Biography Fred Perry was an English tennis champion, who was the first (and only) British tennis player to win all four major open championships.

He won Wimbledon for three consecutive years between 1933-36. He was the last British player to win Wimbledon until Andy Murray won 77 years later in 2013. Fred Perry also won the world table tennis championship in 1929. After his 1936 Wimbledon win, Perry turned professional. (in those days Wimbledon and other major championships was only open to amateurs) This earned the displeasure of the All England club and Perry’s achievements were overshadowed by the class driven conflict between the working class Perry and the establishment of British tennis. He later moved to America and became a naturalised American citizen. Early Life Fred Perry Fred Perry was born in Stockport, Cheshire in 1909. His father worked as a cotton spinner, and later became involved in working class politics. As a child, he lived in Wallesley, Merseyside, and for a brief time in Bolton. Aged nine, his family moved to Ealing, London, where he attended Ealing Grammar School.

His father, Samuel Perry was active member of the Co-operative party (loosely related to the Labour party), he became a Co-operative member of parliament for Kettering in 1929. Perry had tremendous natural ability at tennis and table tennis. His quick reflexes and eye for the game, made him a formidable opponent. In 1929 he won the table tennis world championship in Budapest. After that victory, he concentrated on tennis and never played table tennis again. He said that he was able to use the skills in table tennis for the game of tennis. He had tremendous strength and was able to hit a very hard forehand. He also spent six months learning to ‘hit the ball early – on the rise.’ – which his coach would enable him to become the best player in the world. Perry qualified for his first Wimbledon tournament in 1929. He then made rapid progress and won his first grand slam open at the US open in 1933. After this there followed a three year period of domination. In 1934, he won three grand slams – the Australian, Wimbledon and US open.

In 1935, he completed the set of grand slams, winning the French Open in Paris. In his final year as an amateur, he won both the US and Wimbledon, making a total of 8 grand slams in four years. His last Wimbledon final was won in straight sets of 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 in a final lasting only 45 minutes – one of the quickest finals on record. Perry was known for his competitive nature, Jack Kramer said Perry would call out ‘very clever’ when his opponents hit a good shot. Perry was also a media star, with his off-pitch romances making headline news. The Wimbledon establishment were rather cool about this ‘upstart’ working class boy winning Wimbledon. Perry didn’t quite fit in with the expectations of Wimbledon social graces. On his part, Perry didn’t warm to the ‘stuffy’ atmosphere that pervaded the class conscious All England club. He said that when he began playing tennis, it was very much the ‘hoi polloi’ who dominated the game; a working class player like Perry was quite a rarity.

Perry said in an interview that when he joined the game, he wasn’t resented, but the tennis establishment were surprised that someone from his background could break into the top of the game. Perry admitted he was a ‘bit of a loner’ and ‘bloody minded’ about the whole game. “I didn’t aspire to be a good sport; “champion” was good enough for me.” When he won his first Wimbledon title in 1933, he beat Australian Jack Crawford 6-3, 6-0, 7-5. It was the tradition for winners to always be given a special Wimbledon tie, but Perry’s tie was never presented properly – he just found it draped over the back of his dressing room chair. He said that incident annoyed him a lot. He said of the incident: “Instead of Fred J Perry the champ I felt like J Fred Muggs the chimp,” In 1936, Perry turned professional so he could earn money from the sport. After that the British tennis establishment turned their back on Perry, and it wasn’t until 50 years later, that a statue to Perry was erected at Wimbledon to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his victory.

Perry’s standing in British tennis grew as the decades without another British winner continued – until 2013. As a professional, Perry played over 350 games, though the competition never had the same prestige as the amateur tournaments which still dominated the game. Personal life Perry had romances with many leading actresses and models, such as Marlene Dietrich. He became friendly with Charlie Chaplin , Groucho Marx and Betty Davis. He was married three times. The first two were short affairs, but his third marriage to Barbara Riese in 1952, lasted forty years – they had two children. Fred Perry clothing label In the 1940s, Fred Perry was approached by Tibby Wegner to use his name in a new clothing label. Initially focused on a simple tennis shirt, the Fred Perry clothing label went on to become one of the world’s leading fashion labels. It was an inspired choice as Perry cut an image of a cool sports superstar, with a slightly rebellious attitude which appealed to the British teenagers of the 50s, 60s and 70s. After retiring from tennis, Perry worked as a coach and was involved in growing his clothing label.

Perry died in 1995 at the age of 85. He was in Melbourne at the time, attending the Australian Open. Citation : Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Fred Perry”, Oxford, , 21st Oct. 2013 The Last Champion: The Life of Fred Perry Fred Perry X Nigel Cabourn | Menswear | Flannels.com Fred Perry X Nigel Cabourn Refine By Refine & Sort Fred Perry X Nigel Cabourn Sportswear and streetwear brand Fred Perry have once again teamed up with industry veteran Nigel Cabourn for a new season collaboration. The collection is inspired by both brand's founders love for table tennis. Fred Perry was first named World Champion of Table Tennis in 1929, and Nigel Cabourn is an avid fan of the sport. Celebrating both labels heritages, this rand ueses pique cotton which was traditionally used on Fred Perry's shirt, combined with Nigel Cabourns iconic colourways to create timeless pieces. 5 products Sizes: 36, 38, 40, 42, 44 Quick view World When Fred Perry Won at Wimbledon Link Historic win: Fred Perry.

In contrast, Murray walked away with a staggering £1.6 million ($2.6 million) after his straight sets win over world No. 1. Novak Djokovic overnight. The same year as Perry's triumph, Adolf Hitler opened the 11th Olympic Games in Berlin, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind hit the book stands for the first time, and the first superhero to wear a skin-tight costume and mask, The Phantom, made his first appearance in US newspapers. Photo gallery Wimbledon Men's Final 2013 The BBC also launched the world's first regular high-definition television service, while Polaroid sunglasses and Ambre Solaire sunblock were both marketed for the first time. In Australia, Joseph Lyons was the Prime Minister and Bertram Stevens was the Premier of NSW, while the last captive Tasmanian Tiger, known as Benjamin, died in Hobart Zoo. Advertisement Perry did not take up tennis until the age of 18, after initially concentrating his efforts on table tennis, a sport in which he became a world champion in 1929. The equipment also was vastly different, with Perry using a Slazenger racket made from wood and strung with sheep's gut.

In contrast, Murray's racquet is a top-of-the-range carbon-fibre model designed to maximise speed. Perry, who was the first man ever to win all four of the tennis grand slams, also helped to pioneer the intense training and fitness that now characterises professional sport. He would regularly train with the Arsenal Football Club, helping him on his way to eight grand slam titles during his career. Perry died in a hospital in Melbourne in 1995 after breaking his ribs following a fall in a hotel bathroom. Murray was seven years old at the time. Murray used to wear Fred Perry-branded attire in all his matches, before he signed a deal with Adidas in 2009. Asked before the Wimbledon final what he thought Perry might say to him, Murray quipped: "Why are you not wearing my kit?" Advertisement Fred Perry, Tennis player • Biography & Facts Fred Perry Tennis player Frederick John Perry (18 May 1909 – 2 February 1995) was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams.

Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row. Perry also became the last British player to win the men's Wimbledon championship in 1936. Perry was the first player to win all four Grand Slam singles titles (though not all in the same year) and completed this "Career Grand Slam" at the age of 26. Although Perry began his tennis career aged 18, he was also a Table Tennis World Champion in 1929. In 1933, Perry helped lead the Great Britain team to victory over France in the Davis Cup; the team's first success since 1912, followed by wins over the United States in 1934, 1935, and a fourth consecutive title with victory over Australia in 1936. Perry was acclaimed across the tennis world, but was not universally admired in his homeland, and was widely ostracised by the tennis establishment for turning professional after completing a hat-trick of Wimbledon singles triumphs.

After becoming disillusioned with the class-conscious nature of the Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, the working-class Perry moved to the United States before becoming a naturalised US citizen in 1938. In 1942, he was drafted into the US Air Force during the Second World War. Despite his unprecedented contribution to British tennis, Perry was not accorded full recognition by tennis authorities until his twilight years. In 1984, a statue of Perry was unveiled at Wimbledon, and in the same year Perry became the only tennis player listed in a survey of 2,000 Britons to find the ‘Best of the Best’ British sportsmen of the 20th century. It's not well known, but Fred Perry was also the Tennis Table World Champion in 1929, being the only player in history to have won at least one Major tournament in both tennis and ping-pong. Personal facts Fred Perry x Nigel Cabourn | Men's Clearance | Flannels Fred Perry X Nigel Cabourn Refine By Refine & Sort Fred Perry X Nigel Cabourn Sportswear and streetwear brand Fred Perry have once again teamed up with industry veteran Nigel Cabourn for a Spring Summer 2016 collaboration.

The collection is inspired by both brand's founders love for table tennis. Fred Perry was first named World Champion of Table Tennis in 1929, and Nigel Cabourn is an avid fan of the sport. The Fred Perry x Nigel Cabourn clearance collection celebrates both labels heritages, using pique cotton which was traditionally used on Fred Perry's shirts to create timeless menswear pieces. 4 products Nigel Cabourn X Fred Perry | Covent Garden Nigel Cabourn X Fred Perry This event has now finished. See What's On in Covent Garden Fred Perry have announced their collaboration with Nigel Cabourn launching this Spring / Summer 2015. Akin in their love of table tennis; Fred Perry first became World Champion of Table Tennis in 1929 before pursuing tennis, while Nigel is a self-confessed fan. The collaboration celebrates both Fred Perry LTD and Nigel Cabourn Authentic’s UK manufacturing roots from the 1950s and 1970s respectively. Styles in the collection are inspired by those worn by Fred Perry and Victor Barna, the British-Hungarian five-time World Champion of Table Tennis and winner of 40 medals during 1929-1954.

Barna, also an inspiration to Nigel, collaborated with Fred Perry on a personalised range of sportswear. The pique cotton used on early 1950s Fred Perry tennis styles has been sourced and used across the collection to add authenticity, while branding is also inspired by the same era of design. Nigel Cabourn X Fred Perry is available in their Henrietta Street store and online at Obituary: Fred Perry, 1909 - 1995 - Telegraph UK News Obituary: Fred Perry, 1909 - 1995 February 3 1995: Fred Perry, who has died aged 85, in Melbourne, was the greatest player in the history of British lawn tennis and the last British player to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon - a victory he secured in three successive years from 1934 to 1936. 76 years: Fred Perry in action against Roderich Menzel on No.

1 Court in 1935 Photo: Getty Images 10:11AM BST 08 Jul 2012 Perry was the first player to win all four Grand Slam championships - of Wimbledon, the United States, France and Australia. He also played a key part in Britain's four Davis Cup triumphs between 1933 and 1936. Especially memorable was the decisive final rubber against France, in Paris in 1933. Perry, who had taken five sets to beat Henri Cochet on the opening day, recovered from losing the first set and being two set points down in the second set to beat Andre Merlin 4-6, 8-6, 6-2, 7-5. It was Britain's first success since 1912, and ended six years of French domination. When the team arrived at Dover, they received a telegram of congratulation from King George V. A crowd of 10,000 greeted the train when it reached Victoria. Perry competed in a total of 20 Davis Cup matches, winning 34 of his 38 rubbers in singles, and 11 out of 14 in doubles.

Since then, Britain has reached the final once. Related Articles Reporter in 1938 recalls backdrop of war 08 Jul 2012 At 20 Perry had been world table tennis champion, and he brought to the court the speed of reaction - and some of the shots - that he had developed on the table. His speciality on the tennis court was a running forehand, taken early and often with great risk; other players imitated him at their peril. But Perry had a wonderful eye and a strong wrist. He favoured the Continental grip with no change of hand position between backhand and forehand. His brilliant shot-making was matched by his competitive steel; and he trained far more zealously than most of his rivals. Twice, on his way to becoming Wimbledon champion for the first time, he was stretched to five sets. He was under less pressure in the next two years, dropping only three sets in 1935 and one in 1936, when, in the final, he beat the injured Baron Gottfried von Cramm 6-1, 6-1, 6-0.

As well as his three successes in the Wimbledon men's singles in 1935 and 1936, he won the mixed doubles with Dorothy Round. Yet though Perry claimed that, from the first time he saw the Centre Court as a paying spectator in 1928, he "always had a love affair with Wimbledon" his relationships with the All England Club were often prickly. As he wrote in his autobiography in 1984: "It shows how we have all mellowed over the years from the days when some elements in the All England Club and the Lawn Tennis Association looked down on me as a hot-headed, outspoken tearaway rebel, not quite the class of the chap they really wanted to see winning Wimbledon, even if he was English. "I've mellowed too. I think I'm very much a leopard who has changed his spots. Looking back, I have to concede that I was sometimes a little brash and aggressive about what I regarded as the class-ridden set-up there.

But at the time, a young man with my background was bound to feel that snobbery very keenly, and I still get angry about the shabby way I was treated when I won Wimbledon in 1934, the first Englishman to do it for 20 years." Before the Second World War there were no on-court presentation ceremonies at Wimbledon. The chairman would seek out the champion, congratulate him and present him with the club tie, as confirmation of his being made an honorary member. Perry often told how, taking a long soak in the bath after beating the defending champion, Jack Crawford, in the final, he had overheard a member of the All England Club committee tell the Australian: "Congratulations. This was one day when the best man didn't win." Crawford was also presented with a bottle of champagne. All Perry received was the club tie draped over his chair, and a #25 voucher redeemable at Mappin & Webb. No congratulations were offered. "Instead of Fred J Perry, the champ," he recalled, "I felt like Fred J Muggs the chimp. I've never been so angry in my whole life. It really hurt.

All my paranoia about the old-school brigade surfaced with a vengeance." It is only fair to observe that Perry's attitude as a player was never calculated to please. He did not believe in congratulating an opponent on a good shot, nor in correcting a bad call in his favour. "I didn't aspire to be a good sport," he said. "Champion was good enough for me." In 1936, when he turned professional after his third Wimbledon success, his membership of the All England Club was automatically rescinded. The very mention of the word professional remained anathema there until 1968, when amateurs and professionals were at last allowed to compete in the same events. Frederick John Perry was born at Stockport on May 18 1909, the son of a cotton spinner who became secretary of the Co-operative Party and Labour MP for Kettering. When Fred was a boy he lived briefly at Bolton and then at Liverpool. Towards the end of the First World War the family moved to London, and it was while living at Brentham, near Ealing, that Fred's sporting talents began to blossom. He played football and cricket but his great passion was table tennis.

It was not until he was 14 that he started playing tennis, inspired by watching the game at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne. Success came swiftly in table tennis, and he played for England in the same team as Adrian Haydon, the father of Ann Haydon Jones, who would also be a world table tennis and a Wimbledon champion. Perry won the world table tennis singles title at Budapest in 1929. But his father was unimpressed. "You play at night-time in a smoky room," he complained, "you look like death warmed up - why not concentrate on tennis?" So at 20 Fred Perry gave up table tennis for the open-air game, undeterred by the memory of how, at the Wimbledon junior championships, his only racket had broken and he lost in the fourth round. In county competitions Middlesex claimed his loyalty. In 1929, a few days after playing for Chiswick Park in the Middlesex club competition, he qualified for Wimbledon for the first time and won two matches before losing in four sets to John Oliff.

A year later, while Perry was beating Umberto de Morpurgo, an Italian baron and First World War air ace, an LTA committee chose him to join a four-man team to tour the United States. "My tennis career began on that day," he later said. The tour introduced him to a new way of life. In Hollywood he met, and made friends with, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks, Randolph Scott, David Niven, Errol Flynn and Bebe Daniels. To Perry, an entertainer at heart, the appeal was irresistible. He won the United States National Championships (now the US Open) in 1933, 1934 and 1936; the Australian singles and doubles in 1934; and the French Open in 1935. (Earlier in Paris he had won the mixed doubles with Betty Nuthall and the men's doubles with Pat Hughes.) Perry continued to flourish as a professional, acquitting himself well against such players as Ellsworth Vines, Bill Tilden and Don Budge. With Vines he bought a major interest in the Beverley Hills Tennis Club, then a haven for showbusiness personalities.

He became an American citizen, and served with the United States Air Force in the Second World War. Afterwards he held coaching posts in Jamaica and Florida. In 1947, at the instigation of Slazenger, he returned to Britain and toured the country with Dan Maskell, playing a series of exhibition matches which helped to raise funds to resurrect interest in British tennis. Perry always regretted that he was not asked by the British tennis authorities to help more in this respect, as he was by Israel and the USSR. He did, though, work briefly with British Davis Cup teams in the mid-1950s. In 1950 he founded Fred Perry Sportswear with Theodore Wegner, and worked hard to turn it into one of the world's best-known sportswear brand names. From 1948 he was a member of the BBC's radio commentary team at Wimbledon, and from 1977 a founder member of the panel of former champions established by the International Tennis Federation to nominate the men's world champion. To the end he remained a pungent critic of the game, both as writer and broadcaster.

Every year he would travel from his home at Boca Raton, Florida, to tournaments all over the world. From 1947 until 1983, when he blacked out in his car while driving home from Wimbledon, Perry did not miss a single day's play at the tournament. (Just as he was about to be discharged from hospital, he suffered a major heart attack, which he survived only because medical aid was at hand.) He was back in 1984, and attended every day until the end of last year, working for BBC Radio and writing for The Daily Telegraph. He never tired of watching, analysing and discussing matches, especially players' technical and tactical merits. His skill and accuracy were unrivalled - Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe were among many who appreciated his comments. In 1984, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first singles triumph at Wimbledon, the All England Club commissioned a statue of Perry, which stands in a rose garden opposite the Members Enclosure. They also renamed the Somerset Road entrance to the grounds as the Fred Perry Gates. Undaunted by major heart surgery in 1992, Perry continued his exhausting world tours.

But the lack of guile in the modern game bothered him; in his day, he held, "you could use your noggin a little bit more than you can now". Perry married four times. His last wife, Bobby, whom he married in 1952, was his constant travelling companion. They had a daughter and adopted a son. Fred Perry: Hero from the wrong side of the tracks | The Independent Fred Perry: Hero from the wrong side of the tracks 1/2 2/2 GETTY IMAGES It is early evening on the final Sunday at Wimbledon and Andy Murray lies back in his bath in the locker room and ponders the enormity of his achievement. He has just beaten Rafael Nadal, the world No 1, to become the first British man to win at the All England Club for 73 years. He hears the locker-room door open and recognises the voices of Wimbledon committee members. "Take this bottle of champagne," one of them says to Nadal.

"We're only sorry that this was one day when the best man didn't win." Murray, hardly believing his ears, hurries out of the bath as the Wimbledon men leave and sees his All England Club tie, which goes with the membership granted to champions, draped over a chair. The committee members have not even had the decency to present it to him personally. Impossible? At the enlightened Wimbledon of today, yes, but in 1934 that scene was played out for real. For Murray read Fred Perry and for Nadal read Australia's Jack Crawford. Perry had become the first British man for 25 years to win the greatest prize in tennis, but he was a northerner, had not been to public school and, most shockingly of all in the eyes of the All England Club's hierarchy, was the son of a Labour MP. Monday is the 100th anniversary of Perry's birth. It is more than 14 years since his death, but to his loved ones the anger over his treatment still runs deep. "I think what happened that day went to the grave with him," Penny Perry, his only daughter, says.

"When he talked about it in later years he would always say: 'What is done is done'. But even today when it's mentioned my hackles rise. I can just imagine how he would have felt and I'm sure it always grated with him." Today Penny, who is 50, lives in Florida, near Boca Raton, where Bobby, her mother and Perry's fourth wife, celebrated her 90th birthday last Thursday. Penny is married to Drew Evert, Chris Evert's brother. "Being called 'Perry-Evert' has a great tennis ring to it, but I answer to all sorts of names," she says. "When I'm talking to people about Fred I'm Penny Perry. When I'm doing stuff with Drew I drop the Perry and become Mrs Evert. But my son, John Frederick [her father was Frederick John], is a Perry." Fred Perry was one of the greatest players in history. He won eight Grand Slam titles and is one of a select group to have won all four Grand Slam trophies. He won Wimbledon three years in a row, the last man to do so before Bjorn Borg emulated the feat in 1978.

The 1930s, however, was a time when Wimbledon was at the centre of the society scene, when the higher levels of the game were dominated by the upper classes and when professionalism was a dirty word. Snobbery at the All England Club was such that a young man of modest means from Stockport, whose father was a prominent figure in the Co-operative Party, was regarded by many as an intruder. "It was a time when somebody from north of Watford just wasn't expected to do what he did – which is at the heart of the whole problem we have had as a tennis country for years," Penny says. "He was simply from the wrong side of the tracks." Perry's uncompromising approach did not go down well with the traditionalists. He became supremely fit by training with Arsenal's footballers, was a ferocious competitor and was not averse to using gamesmanship. Before a match he would shout "any time you're ready" across the net, indicating his own self-confidence, while he could infuriate opponents by greeting their winning shots with a sarcastic comment of "very clevah". The final break with the establishment came in 1936, when Perry turned professional.

The All England Club rescinded his membership. Perry's father had supported him financially, but he knew that he would eventually have to pay his own way in the world. The Lawn Tennis Association made vague promises to look after him, but nothing ever materialised. Thereafter Perry played professionally in the United States. From his earliest visits he felt at ease with the American way of life. He enjoyed mingling with Hollywood celebrities and as a handsome man, always immaculately turned out, wooed some of the world's most beautiful women. It was not long before he took US citizenship. Subsequently, Perry was never in Britain for more than three months of the year. In later life he always came to Wimbledon, where he was a stalwart of the BBC radio commentary team, but spent most of his winters in Florida, where he was the teaching pro at the Boca Raton Club, or in Jamaica, where he was director of golf at Runaway Bay. Perry helped establish tennis in Russia, was a part owner of the Beverly Hills Tennis Club and a global ambassador for the Fred Perry Sportswear firm he had founded (and sold in 1961) and commentated on major tennis tournaments.

He died in February 1995 in Melbourne, where he had been at the Australian Open. Yet Perry was, in his daughter's words, "a Brit from start to finish". She explains: "Even after leaving Britain he never became anything else. I think that's why he felt so much resentment. It was like being stabbed in the back twice. He had done so much in the name of Great Britain and Great Britain was saying to him: 'Thank you very much, stick it, goodbye'. He obviously had to become an American to do what he was doing, but he would always say: 'I'm only an American on paper'. What was he supposed to do? He had the choice of sitting there and doing nothing or making a living." In 1933 Perry famously helped wrest the Davis Cup back from the French, whose "Four Musketeers" had held it since 1927. He led Britain to three successful defences of a trophy they have never won since. "For him the Davis Cup was all about the sheer honour of putting on your jacket and tie with a Union Jack on it," Penny says. "He always got very emotional about it.

He said people who are genuinely patriotic will always play far, far better in the Davis Cup than their ranking would ever suggest. They're playing for their flag and he always said that was how it should be. He didn't understand how players could miss the Davis Cup. He would say: 'What do you mean, they're not playing?'" Perry married Barbara "Bobby" Riese, who was 10 years younger and from a well-to-do British family, in 1953, when he was 44. Penny says: "Theirs was a relationship that absolutely stood the test of time, though I've always said to my mother that she wouldn't have looked at him twice in his twenties. A typical Stockport lad marrying my Belgravia mother just would not have happened at that time, though he mellowed a lot in later years." Fred and Bobby spent much of their lives on the road. Penny was born in Fort Lauderdale, but at two was sent to Britain with her nanny, Eve Bishop, who brought her up at a house the Perrys bought in Sussex. The only time she spent with her parents was in Jamaica in December and January and an annual Channel Islands summer holiday.

Penny refers to her father as Fred as often as she calls him Dad. "I spent my whole life growing up with two people," she says. "One was Fred Perry and one was my father. The two never met. I don't think I ever sat down and talked to him about his playing days. "I remember picking him up from the airport once. He said: 'Where are we going?' I said: 'We're going home'. He said: 'So where do we live?' He had never actually been to the house. Everything was done by my nan. When she passed away my mother was there at the funeral and I said: 'Well, this may upset somebody sitting in the congregation, but as far as I'm concerned I've just lost my mother'. My mother totally accepted that. I didn't say it out of any disrespect. That was just the way it was." As for her father, Penny says: "He was a character. I've always said to anybody who never met him: 'I feel sorry that you didn't'. If you had met him for 10 seconds it would have been enough. He was low profile but made an immediate impact on people.

He was a phenomenal story-teller and speaker, phenomenal with languages." Asked to sum up his character, Penny says he was "an egotistical maniac with a heart of gold". She appreciates that the Fred Perry she never knew – the champion she read about in the newspapers – was ruthlessly single-minded. "He only achieved what he did because of his attitude," she says. "He had that winning mentality that we British have always had missing, which is why he's the only British man to have won Wimbledon in the last 100 years. If he had been in his playing days what he was like in later life – a diplomat to the game, adored by everyone – he wouldn't have achieved what he did." Bridges were rebuilt in Perry's later life and he said the unveiling of his statue at Wimbledon in 1984 meant more than all the prize money in the world. There would be no better way of celebrating the anniversary of his birth than with another British winner, particularly one wearing the shirts of the sportswear company that he founded. What does Penny think her father would have made of Andy Murray? "I think he might in his earlier days have said: 'Well, he's got some spunk'.

But in later years he probably would have said: 'The skill's there, but this and that need doing'." How would he have felt if he was no longer the last British man to win Wimbledon? "He would probably have had mixed feelings, though he always used to say: 'Records are made to be broken. I hope it happens. It would be good for the country'. Then under his breath he might mutter: 'Not in my lifetime'." Would he have enjoyed seeing Murray wear a Fred Perry shirt? "Yes and no. Yes because it's a Brit wearing it and possibly no because Fred always thought that whoever wore his stuff always looked totally pristine, as though they'd just come out of a starch shop. Fred was always meticulous about his appearance and I don't necessarily feel that way about Andy. That's just a personal opinion.

You think: 'Oh my goodness can't we clean him up a bit, he's wearing Fred Perry clothes!' That would be a gut reaction and I think Fred would have said the same." 'The Last Champion', Jon Henderson's new biography of Fred Perry is published by Yellow Jersey Press, priced £18.99 Perry from heaven: Fred's life and times *Born: 18 May 1909, Stockport *Died: 2 February 1995, Melbourne *Marriages: Helen Vinson (1935), Sandra Breaux (1941), Lorraine Walsh (1947), Barbara 'Bobby' Riese (1953) *Education: Wallasey Grammar School, Drayton Green Primary School, Ealing County School *World table tennis champion: 1929 *Davis Cup winner: 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936 *Wimbledon champion: 1934, 1935, 1936 *Australian Open champion: 1934 *US Open champion: 1933, 1934

, 1936 *Turned professional: 1936 Johnny Leach obituary | Sport | The Guardian Johnny Leach obituary English table tennis champion with a huge influence on his sport Johnny Leach held sway during the 1950s and 60s when table tennis was one of Britain's most popular sports.

Photograph: S&G and Barratts/Empics Sunday 8 June 2014 12.59 EDT First published on Sunday 8 June 2014 12.59 EDT Share on Messenger Close For many years Johnny Leach, who has died aged 91, was synonymous with English table tennis. Both in his prime as a player, in the immediate postwar years, and subsequently as an ambassador, promoter, administrator, businessman and talent-spotter, his impact on the sport was immense. Leach held sway in an age when table tennis could claim to be the most popular participation sport in the UK. It was played everywhere: youth clubs and youth hostels, working men's clubs, works canteens, church halls and of course homes. If you could not afford the folding table from Woolworths, you simply bought the net and stretched it across the kitchen table. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, the sport had a heady time of it.

Chester Barnes, the controversial genius of the sport, and one of the players discovered by Leach's talent programme, recalled playing at the Wembley Arena in front of crowds of 10,000. "When Johnny was at his peak, they even had an act at the London Palladium. You couldn't imagine that now, could you?" said Barnes. Born in Bow, in the East End of London, and brought up in Dagenham, Essex , Johnny was the son of Emma and her husband Jim, a manager at British Ropes, south of the Thames in Woolwich. Johnny played on the table in the works canteen there and set about pursuing junior titles, with his father's encouragement, at the age of 17, making him something of a late starter for the sport. By that time, the second world war was under way, and he served with the Royal Air Force in Northern Ireland. With the serendipity that can shape a career, Leach discovered two international players, Jack Carrington and Ron Crayden, who were also stationed there, and they practised together. Leach maintained that he did not know how good he was until competition proper resumed after hostilities ceased.

The war had inadvertently bolstered English table tennis, with the arrival of the players Victor Barna and Richard Bergmann , from Hungary and Austria respectively. Both had been world champions in the 30s, and while in 1946 Barna was approaching the veteran stage, Bergmann, a brilliant defensive player, was at his peak. By 1947, Leach was in the mix too, reaching the semi-final of the world championships in Paris. The next four years were the halcyon days of English table tennis. Bergmann won the world title at Wembley in 1948; Leach won the title in Stockholm the following year (to become only the second homegrown British world champion after Fred Perry in 1929); and then it was back to Bergmann in 1950, and Leach for his second title in 1951. Gaumont British News filmed Leach's arrival home from those championships in Stockholm, stepping down from a KLM Dakota with fellow world champions Diane and Rosalind Rowe , the twins who won the women's doubles. The scene was shown in cinemas across the country.

Though it seemed unlikely at the time, for Leach was only 28, that would be his last individual world title and the last by an English player. Twelve months later in Bombay, the Japanese player Hiroji Satoh opened his bat case and changed the sport forever. His thick sponge-covered bat used with a penholder grip imparted so much spin on the ball, and was so quiet, that the hard-bat players , with their pimpled rubber on wood, were no match. Satoh, in his first world championship, became Japan's first world champion in any sport. Leach tried the new bats, but could not get on with them. Nevertheless, he had an illustrious swansong, winning the Swaythling Cup, the world team championship, in 1953 with Bergmann also in the team, and he would continue to compete internationally until 1959 and nationally until 1965, winning his last crown in the men's doubles at the national championships in 1964 with David Creamer. Leach was not only a player.

Involved with almost every aspect of the sport, he became a vice-president of the English Table Tennis Association, now Table Tennis England (1964), and then president (1988-2011); he had a job with the table tennis manufacturers SW Hancock, a company he would later buy; and in the 1960s he established an ambitious talent-spotting programme with Butlins holiday camps, which discovered more than 50 international players. He was appointed MBE in 1966, and his reputation preceded him everywhere he went. "He had respect all over the world. As soon as people knew that Johnny was coming with you, you had the best treatment, the best hotels,the best everything," said Barnes. Leach married his wife, Daisy, in 1946. She died in 2009, as did a son, John, last year. He is survived by another son, Jeff, two granddaughters and two grandsons. • John Alfred Leach, table tennis player and entrepreneur, born 20 November 1922; died 5 June 2014

Question: At which sport was Fred Perry World Champion in 1929
Answer: Table tennis